Drugging a human into unconsciousness without literally killing them is hard enough in a medical office with a trained professional with medical equipment and a willing participant. (I’m talking about general anaesthesia here.)
Trying to do that against someone who is unwilling, hostile, and hasn’t had a medical work-up isn’t just unfeasible, it’s unrealistic – and that’s before accounting for the fact that drugging a person into unconsciousness usually takes several minutes. That’s usually several minutes too long for most scenarios where “just shoot them, lethally” is an otherwise reasonable option.
At the point of a standoff there are generally two resolutins: police talk the suspect down, or through force, eliminate the standoff circumstance.
So let’s say suspect has a pregnant lady at knife point. We’ve been talking for hours and not making headway, he’s getting agitated and you can tell he’s ramping up to do something stupid. He holds the knife to her ribs and starts to push.
If that marksman shoots, the shot HAS to stop the threat, immediately. A well placed bullet can do that.
If that marksman is armed with a tranquilizer rifle there’s a few factors the bullet doesn’t need to consider.
1. Dose: too little and the tranq doesn’t work, too much and it kills him anyway.
2. Training: see above. Anesthesiologists are doctors with medical training to figure out doses, so now police have to be cops, counselors, Frontline medics, AND have a deep medical knowledge.
3. Reliability: if the dose is wrong, that suspect continues to stab the victim. If the dose acts slowly because the suspect has a slow metabolism or drugs in his system, the suspect continues to stab the victim. If the suspect has an underlying medical condition, you may he killed him anyway.
At the time of firing, the result must be conclusive. Tranquilizer darts are not there.
At the point of a standoff there are generally two resolutins: police talk the suspect down, or through force, eliminate the standoff circumstance.
So let’s say suspect has a pregnant lady at knife point. We’ve been talking for hours and not making headway, he’s getting agitated and you can tell he’s ramping up to do something stupid. He holds the knife to her ribs and starts to push.
If that marksman shoots, the shot HAS to stop the threat, immediately. A well placed bullet can do that.
If that marksman is armed with a tranquilizer rifle there’s a few factors the bullet doesn’t need to consider.
1. Dose: too little and the tranq doesn’t work, too much and it kills him anyway.
2. Training: see above. Anesthesiologists are doctors with medical training to figure out doses, so now police have to be cops, counselors, Frontline medics, AND have a deep medical knowledge.
3. Reliability: if the dose is wrong, that suspect continues to stab the victim. If the dose acts slowly because the suspect has a slow metabolism or drugs in his system, the suspect continues to stab the victim. If the suspect has an underlying medical condition, you may he killed him anyway.
At the time of firing, the result must be conclusive. Tranquilizer darts are not there.
At the point of a standoff there are generally two resolutins: police talk the suspect down, or through force, eliminate the standoff circumstance.
So let’s say suspect has a pregnant lady at knife point. We’ve been talking for hours and not making headway, he’s getting agitated and you can tell he’s ramping up to do something stupid. He holds the knife to her ribs and starts to push.
If that marksman shoots, the shot HAS to stop the threat, immediately. A well placed bullet can do that.
If that marksman is armed with a tranquilizer rifle there’s a few factors the bullet doesn’t need to consider.
1. Dose: too little and the tranq doesn’t work, too much and it kills him anyway.
2. Training: see above. Anesthesiologists are doctors with medical training to figure out doses, so now police have to be cops, counselors, Frontline medics, AND have a deep medical knowledge.
3. Reliability: if the dose is wrong, that suspect continues to stab the victim. If the dose acts slowly because the suspect has a slow metabolism or drugs in his system, the suspect continues to stab the victim. If the suspect has an underlying medical condition, you may he killed him anyway.
At the time of firing, the result must be conclusive. Tranquilizer darts are not there.
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